A United Front
by Richonne
Summary: Rick and the group encounter a new threat in the form of a gang of cutthroats who follow a coldblooded leader named Micah Bishop. Rick must find a safe place for his people while dealing with the constant threat of Bishop's gang. Sequel to The Razor's Edge.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**: Rick and the group encounter a new threat in the form of a gang of cutthroats who follow a coldblooded leader named Micah Bishop. Rick must find a safe place for his people while dealing with the constant threat of Bishop's gang. It won't be easy with new members added to his group, a new romance with Michonne, and the arrival of an old enemy who may side with Bishop against him at any moment.

**A/N:** Sequel to The Razor's Edge.

* * *

"_**When I first lost Lori and**_ Carl, almost two years ago, I lost my sanity. I saw Lori in every woman with long dark hair. I saw Carl in every boy. I almost didn't make it back from that."

Michonne held up the sponge and squeezed the water from it. She leaned against Rick, feeling the water warm with their body heat. Or perhaps she was just acclimating to it.

She was acclimating to a lot, actually. In the three months since Rick, Daryl, and Beth had left Woodbury to join her and her people, a lot of changes had happened. She'd fallen hard for Rick. She'd sworn she'd never let herself love again after losing her boyfriend, son, and family to the Turn, but Rick had challenged all of that. Even before Rick had come into her life, she'd spent over eight months forging a bond with the boy who'd turned out to be his son.

"Andrea spoke of you and Shane after she came to live with us," Michonne said, as she watched the candle burn in its glass enclosure. "Carl must have known you were alive yet he never said anything."

"He won't talk to me now," Rick said. "Three months and he won't speak a word to me unless its something hateful."

"I can't get him to open up either. I think he's mad about us."

"I don't understand why. He calls you Mom," Rick pointed out. "He loves you. It's me he hates."

"He doesn't want you here. That much is obvious," Michonne said. "You've told me what you saw that day. Carol told me what she saw."

Rick nodded. "She saw me and Shane drive away after the bus Lori and Carl took refuge in was overrun. She saw Lori throw herself to them so Carl could get away. I didn't see that from my vantage point."

"He must think you abandoned him."

"I did."

"You didn't, Rick."

"Just because I didn't see him go down specifically, doesn't mean-"

Michonne silenced his self-flagellating commentary with a long, deep kiss. "You didn't abandon your son."

"If Carol hadn't risked her life to pull him off that bus and get him to safety he would have died."

"He didn't, though, did he? Rick, you're going to have to take a firm hand with Carl. You're going to have to sit him down and make him listen to you. I'll be there with you, if you like. He listens to me. Well, as much as any fourteen-year-old will listen to anyone."

Rick smiled. "What would I do without you?"

Michonne shrugged and repositioned herself so she could climb from the bath. The water cascaded down her firm, beautiful body, and she smiled at him. "You'd masturbate a lot. Now lets go to bed. I need more from you than just kisses in the bathtub tonight."

* * *

_**The next morning Rick came down to**_ a breakfast of boiled eggs and a bowl of freshly cut peaches. Carl was at the table, studiously ignoring him, while talking to Andrea about scavenging. For her part, Andrea was rubbing her eyes trying to deal with a headache.

"I'm not a kid. I can go out with the rest of you. Tell her, Mom. "

"It's up to Andrea who she wants to take out on a hunt," said Michonne. "You can't go with her today anyway. You're coming with me and your dad."

"He's not my dad," Carl said, while staring at Rick.

"Yeah, I am, and you're coming with me and Michonne, like it or not."

"This blows," he said angrily, and got up from the table, leaving his breakfast largely untouched.

"This is why I didn't have kids," Andrea said on a sigh. "Good luck, you two. You're gonna need it. Daryl, Beth and I are heading out in the car for a long-haul today. We'll be home around three o'clock if all goes well."

"We'll take the Jeep," Michonne said. "How's Carol this morning?"

Andrea smiled. "She was humming as she cleaned out Sophia's room. She had a peaceful look about her today, as though she's finally accepted what happened. She's making progress."

"You ready?" Daryl asked, coming into the room with Beth in tow.

"As ever," Andrea replied, and grabbed the keys. "We're scavenging for fuel and propane tanks. You guys need to look for food and, if you can find it, bottled water."

Carl was out at the Jeep, sitting in the back seat, when Rick came out, without Michonne. He took the passenger seat and turned to face Carl, his feet hanging from the door.

"I didn't see you that day," Rick said. "Carl, if I'd seen that you were still alive I would have risked everything to save you."

Carl looked up at Rick with hot anger in his eyes. "I saw her go down. I saw them eat Mom. Guess what else I saw? I saw you and Shane drive off. If I could see you, how come you couldn't see me?"

"I don't know," Rick answered honestly. He could barely speak over the lump of emotion that came up in his throat whenever he tried to talk about that day. "Carl, I loved your Mom. I love you, more than I love anything in this world, myself included. I would have died to save you but I thought you went down with Lori. You have to believe me."

"To hell with you. I'm staying with Carol."

"No, you're coming with us," Michonne said, coming around to their end of the car. "I need you. So does your father."

"What do you see in him, anyway?" Carl asked her. "As soon as things get rough he'll run off and leave you to die so he can save a cat in a tree."

Carl put his knees up and skulked, unaware of how deeply his words cut into Rick.

"I'm sorry, Carl-"

"Yeah, you said that already and it ain't good enough. It'll never be good enough and I'll never forgive you for what you did. You left me and Mom when we needed you most. So did Shane. I hate you both."

"Carl-" Michonne began, but Rick held up a hand to silence her.

"No, he's right. I left him and Lori when they needed me most and I don't blame him for holding it against me. I hold it against myself. I'll never forgive myself, so why should I expect him to? Let's roll."

Rick looked up at one of the second floor windows to see Carol looking down at them with a light vague smile on her face. She waved goodbye and Rick waved back. It was the first time he'd seen her smile since he moved in, and for some reason it unsettled him.

* * *

_**The good thing about late September**_ was that it had its good days where the sun was out but the heat and humidity wasn't up enough to make you feel as though you were being boiled alive. Rick kept a lookout for any houses that they hadn't picked clean but saw none. They left their area and took the main road out to the neighboring town and began a search of houses there. They worked in silence not just to be careful of walkers, but to avoid another argument with Carl.

_He's lost to me_, Rick thought, as he watched his son digging through the drawers of some dead family's living room computer desk, looking for anything that could be useful. _If only I hadn't gone after that man, trying to be a hero. If only I'd put my family before others_.

If only, if only. It was too late now. He couldn't go back in time to save Lori and he couldn't force Carl to forgive him.

"Rick?"

Michonne tapped him on the shoulder, giving him the impression she'd said his name several times already.

"Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. Sorry."

He went into the kitchen with Michonne trailing behind him. Together they opened the cupboard and found who, Rick assumed, had been the missus of the house loitering inside. She reached for them with her emaciated, dead hands but Michonne's sword put an end to her quest to feed on the living. Her cupboards offered a good haul on canned goods.

"Carl, we need your help-" Rick started, but his son was staring out the window.

"We got company," he said. "One guy, alone. He's coming for the door."

"Armed with what?" asked Michonne.

"Glock, I think."

The door opened a moment later. Rick had his weapon drawn, as did Carl. Michonne's sword was up and ready. The newcomer was an Asian man, Korean, Rick judged, and young. He had a wide-eyed look that was usually on the face of someone who fell for a prank, like sitting on a whoopee cushion in a quiet room, and was suddenly the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.

"Uh…hi," he said, lowering his gun. "I'm just scavenging for my group. I don't mean anyone any harm."

"How many in your group?" asked Rick.

"Five others," he said. "We're peaceful people. We don't want any trouble."

"Here comes a woman," Carl said, keeping lookout by the door.

"That's my girlfriend, Maggie. Please, don't hurt her."

"We're not out to hurt anybody," Rick said. "We just all need to remain calm."

"Glenn? What are you-oh-"

The woman, Maggie, entered the room with her gun in hand, but lowered. "It's okay," Glenn told her. "I'm sure these are good people. We just all need to stay calm and nothing bad will happen."

"Glenn and Maggie?" Carl said, frowning at them. "Maggie Greene? Your father is named Hershel?"

The newcomers looked to Carl with confused and wary expressions.

"Yeah. How do you know that?"

Carl looked over at his father and Michonne with the first smile Rick had seen since he found his son alive and in Michonne and Carol's care.

"We know your sister, Beth," he said.

"Beth?" Maggie asked, putting her free hand over her mouth. The sudden movement made Rick's stomach knot for a moment. She holstered her gun and put her arms around Glenn as she began to cry.

"Beth's alive?" Glenn asked.

Carl nodded. "She talks about her sister Maggie and her boyfriend Glenn all the time. What are the odds you've got their names but aren't them? She's fine. She's out on a run with Daryl and Andrea now."

"Can you take me to her?" asked Maggie.

"You can't go off with strangers-" Glenn started, but Maggie turned away from him.

"Please, take me to her."

"We need to think about this," Rick said. "I'm sure you're good people but we're not taking you to our base only five minutes after meeting you."

"It's Beth's family. You can see what a good person Beth is," Carl said. "You really think her family would try to kill us and take our house?"

"I don't know," Rick said. "I'm not taking a chance."

"I understand that," said Glenn. "What about setting up at a meeting place of your choice?"

"There's a gas station about three miles from here on the right side of the road. Meet us there at four o'clock."

"I've gotta tell Daddy," Maggie said. "Please, come and meet our group. We've had a pretty good haul out here today. We can share some food with you."

"We've found a good stash of canned goods in here," said Michonne.

"Glenn can help you move it out to your car. I assume that Jeep outside is yours," said Maggie.

"I'd be happy to help," Glenn offered.

Rick nodded. "Okay then. Appreciated."

It took everything Maggie had not to run out of the house yelling for her father. She walked quickly, hurrying to find him. She couldn't believe it. Beth. Her baby sister was alive after all. For the past year Maggie and her father had lived on the assumption that Beth had died on the farm when she had, in fact, escaped.

"Daddy!" Maggie said, beginning to weep again.

"My God. Glenn," her father, Hershel said, seeing the tears come from her eyes. "Where is he? Is he bit somewhere I can amputate?"

She shook her head at once and threw her arms around him. "Glenn's fine. Daddy...it's Beth. She's alive."

* * *

_**"Where are you taking me?" **_Beth asked Michonne and Rick. She rode in the back with Daryl and Carl, holding Daryl's hand and looking confused.

"Something you need to see," Rick said cryptically. "I promise, you're gonna love this."

Beth frowned but settled back in the seat. What could be so important that she and Daryl had to leave the house and the big job of unpacking their goods on Andrea and Carol alone?

Michonne slowed the jeep and turned left, driving into the parking area of an abandoned BP that had already been picked clean. There was a pickup truck and an old RV parked there. Beth noticed the truck at once, thinking it looked exactly like the one her father had owned. She found herself doing that a lot since she'd been separated from her family. She saw things that made her think of her father and sister, and Glenn, the man she'd adopted as her brother. Every time it caused her a stab of pain straight through her heart.

"You met new people?" asked Daryl, also wondering what was going on. He grabbed his crossbow and climbed out, ready for anything that may come their way next.

Beth saw that the door to the RV was open and several shadows were of those shadows emerged from the RV and she thought she would faint from sheer disbelief.

"Oh, my God…Daddy. Daddy!"

She took off across the parking lot like a bolt from Daryl's crossbow, heading straight and true into her father's open arms. He was old but tall and still strong. He spun her around, openly weeping. Maggie and Glenn soon joined them, smothering Beth in hugs until she nearly disappeared.

"Damn," Daryl said, his eyes going moist.

"I know," said Rick, blinking rapidly. He looked at Carl, who was already gazing up at him. For the first time since being reunited, Carl's eyes weren't full of anger and resentment when he looked at his father.

Then Carl looked away, and suddenly his eyes widened. "Dad," he said, pointing.

Rick heard them before he saw them. A herd of walkers were emerging from the woods behind the gas station. They came out, crashing through the overgrowth and the kudzu, vines and leaves stuck to their skin in clumps like cancerous growths.

"Beth!" Daryl shouted, and ran toward her.

"Walkers!" Rick shouted. "Inside! Get inside!"

The group immediately started for the BP station, but rick saw two members of Hershel's group were stuck inside the RV.

"Who's left out there?" Michonne asked. She helped Rick push a shelf in front of the doors to keep the walkers at bay.

"Sasha and Dale," said Hershel. He and Maggie were still holding onto Beth. They'd just gotten her back, and they had no intentions of letting her go.

Rick ran to the window and looked out at the RV. None of the walkers had circled it yet, and the door was securely shut. If Sasha and Dale were quiet, it was possible the walkers would never know they were inside.

"Drive off," the large, muscular black man that had been introduced as Tyreese, whispered, as he looked out at the RV. "He should drive off and get Sasha out of here."

"You're her brother, Tyreese. You're all the family she has left. Sasha would pitch a fit if he tried that," Hershel said. "She'd never allow it. Not while you're trapped in here."

"We may as well face it," said Glenn darkly. "We're fucked."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Carl sat at the back of **_the store, his hands over his ears, trying to block out the noise of the walkers that clamored to break inside. Their bony hands slapping at the glass, trying to get in, their hungry moans and angry hisses, all came together to transport him back to the worst day of his life. He was back there, in that bus, listening to his mother's screams as she was ripped to pieces after sacrificing herself to give Carl a chance to get out.

_You're my good boy_, she'd said to him. _You're going to beat this world. I know you will_.

He didn't feel like a good boy. He didn't think he was strong enough to beat anything this world threw at him.

"Carl!"

He didn't realize he was screaming until he opened his eyes and saw the look of concern in his father's eyes.

"Are you okay?" Rick asked.

"It's just like that day, with Mom," he sobbed. "It's just like it. Them hitting the glass, trying to get in…"

"You're in there here and now, with me," Rick said, holding each side of his son's face and tilting his head so that Carl had to look him in the eye. "Look at me Carl. You're here, and now, and we're gonna get through this."

For the first time in almost two years Carl felt his father's arms encircle him. They were big, and strong, and until now he hadn't realized just how much he'd missed his dad. He'd missed loving him rather than hating him, laughing with him, talking about everything under the sun with him. He wept as his father held him close. He wept all the bitterness, all the resentment and fear and regret, into his father's chest, with his heart beating strong and steady under his ear. There was something ineffably comforting about the feel of his dad's hand on his back, and the other hand tangled in his hair, and the feel of his father's tears dropping onto his face, that felt like a soothing balm on an open sore.

_For a whole year you've let your father believe you were dead without trying to find him_, Michonne had said to him that morning. _You've spent the past three months spitting in his face every chance you get. Your father is only human, Carl. He made a mistake. Don't you think he's paid for it? Don't you think you've punished him enough?_

That morning his answer had been no, he hadn't punished his father enough. Now, at one of the worst moments he'd had since his mother died, even worse than the day he lost Sophia in many ways, his father had overlooked all the anger, the sass, and the hurt, to embrace him as though nothing had ever happened between them.

That meant everything to Carl.

"I'm here," Rick said. "Dad's here now. I'll die before I let something happen to you. I know you hate me, Carl, but I love you. You have to know that I love you."

One section of the double glass doors broke. Tyreese, Glenn, and Maggie struggled to keep the shelf in place, to hold the walkers out a little longer.

"We need ideas. Options," said Hershel.

"Is there another way out?" Maggie asked.

"I'll see," said Michonne.

She looked at Carl with concern as she passed by and headed into what had once been a storage room. Now, the only thing left were two canisters of stale Bugler tobacco. She snatched them and put them in her satchel. She knew Daryl enjoyed a smoke, now and then, and Hershel looked like a man who wouldn't say no to a pipe. She peered out the back door and found herself facing another herd of walkers. They saw her and lunged for the door, which she slammed shut and locked.

"What?" Rick asked, not liking the look on her face.

"There's about thirty walkers out back."

"How many out front?" Rick queried.

"I count twenty-two," said Tyreese.

"That's over fifty walkers," said Michonne. "Shit."

"We can hole up in the storeroom," Michonne suggested. "It's closed up with sturdy metal doors. There's no way they could break them down."

At that moment, the glass at the bottom of the left door gave away, as did the handle, which crashed to the ground with the broken glass.

"In back!" Rick ordered. He kept Carl close and ushered the others back, but Tyreese remained, using his knife to take out the walkers as they formed a scrum in the narrow opening. One after another they tried to pile in, and he took them out.

"Go," said Michonne, nodding at Rick. She drew her sword and went to stand beside Tyreese, helping him cut down the walkers.

Carl pulled away from his father. "Keep her safe. Help her."

"I don't want to leave you," Rick said. "Not again."

"And I don't want to lose Michonne. Help her," Carl said, and then headed for the storeroom with the others."

"I'm with you," Daryl said, drawing his knife.

Rick nodded, appreciating the show of solidarity.

The four of them continued hacking at the walkers, dealing out fatal head wounds that ended them once and for all.

"I've got an idea," said Rick, as the last of the walkers tried to climb the pile of their dead brethren to get in at the living. "If the walkers in the back are distracted by noise from the storeroom, we can finish these off and have Dale drive the RV up. We can load our people in and then make a run for it."

Tyreese nodded. "That might work."

"Daryl, you'll make a run for the Jeep when I give the word. Tyreese, you'll head for the RV, tell Dale to pull up when I give the signal. Michonne, go to the storeroom, tell everyone to be ready to run, but first, make noise. Bang on the door, yell, get the walkers out back to concentrate on the storeroom."

She ran to the back to give the word. Rick and Daryl cut down the last two walkers before pulling the shelf back and freeing up the other door. He handed Daryl the keys to the Jeep and then faced Tyreese. "If all else fails, try to distract the walkers by beeping the horn and driving off a few feet, beep the horn, drive off, lure them away, then circle back."

"Got it."

The ruckus from the storeroom was working because none of the walkers gathered out back made an effort to come around to the front of the building, even with the noise of the RV firing to life. It seemed to take forever for Dale to maneuver the land boat around to the front of the store, but soon enough it was parked in front.

"Go, Daryl," Rick said.

Michonne, Beth, Hershel, Glenn, Maggie, and Carl rushed out. Michonne and Carl ran to the Jeep and climbed in while the others piled into the RV with Tyreese.

"Follow us!" Rick shouted to Dale before Hershel could slam the door shut.

Daryl peeled out of the parking lot, and Dale drove as quickly as possible to keep up, heading down the road toward home, just as the herd of walkers in back of the store came stumbling to the parking lot in hopeless pursuit of their prey.

Watching it all, from up the street, was a pair of watchful eyes sheltered from the golden glare of the sun by a pair of shades. He sucked on a cigar for a moment before climbing behind the wheel of his pickup and heading off in the opposite direction.

* * *

_**Rick looked at Daryl, who steered**_ down the road, half over the yellow line, not bothering to obey the old rules of the road, and that was fine with Rick.

"We did it," Daryl said. "Or I should say, you did it."

"You were right the first time. _We _did it," Rick answered, and looked back at Carl. He sat in the back seat with Michonne and, to his surprise and delight, his son gave him a faint smile before leaning his head on Michonne's shoulder and closing his eyes.

* * *

_**There was something about almost dying**_ that made Rick want to fuck. The sun had nearly set, the supplies were loaded into the house, and Carl was determined to heat up a can of chili he'd found in the canned goods. With him distracted, Rick took Michonne's hand and led her outside to the back yard where a tool shed was kept loaded with knives as well as an old fashioned push mower.

"It's been a good day," she said, as he pulled the door shut behind them and secured it with a pin that would keep anyone outside from flinging the door open on them.

"My son is coming back to me and we're all alive," said Rick.

"That's enough talk, isn't it?" Michonne said with a smirk.

"It sure as hell is."

He turned her around and pulled her against him, unzipped her pants, and shoved them down. He ran his hands over the flat plane of her belly before working them up under her shirt to gently roll her hardened nipples. She sighed and ground her wonderfully full ass against his aching cock.

Taking the hint, Rick freed himself from his jeans and pushed Michonne forward until she leaned over the workbench. She was warm and slick when he placed the head of his dick at her entrance. Slowly, tortuously, he slid his hardened length inside of her until he was buried balls deep in her.

"Oh," she moaned.

She began to move against him, fast, and he began to pound into her. It was good, to feel the need and the tension build inside, but he needed to face her. He withdrew, earning a growl of frustration from Michonne.

"Look at me," he said.

"In the last rays of sunset, in the darkened shed, she held his gaze as he slammed into her. She gripped his body with her powerful thighs, held herself up by bracing her hands on the workbench. Rick lifted her higher and drove himself into her with everything he had until he shuddered his release into her. Michonne kissed Rick and stroked his bearded face as the last of the light faded.

* * *

_**Rick and Michonne dressed silently in**_ the dark, and then headed for the house, where a party was in progress. Dale had kept a case of Budweiser back for a special occasion, and it was chilling in a mini fridge that had been hooked up to a car battery. Carol stood cooking eggs from the chickens they kept, along with meat from a deer that Daryl had slaughtered the day before.

Beth, Rick noticed, leaned against Daryl, sipping a beer and catching up on everything that had happened since she'd been separated from her family. Andrea was deep in conversation with Tyreese and Sasha. Rick approached Carol and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded at first, then shook her head. "No. People keep asking me that and I'm trying to be. I really am."

"I thought my son was dead for almost two years. I lost my wife. I know the pain you're feeling," he said. "I'm sorry to say it never leaves you. You just learn to accept it."

She nodded and turned two large slabs of meat over in the skillet.

"You saved my boy. I can never thank you enough for that," he said.

"You don't have to thank me, Rick. I just hope you two can find your way back to each other."

"After what happened today, I think we will."

"Good," she said, and turned back to signal was clear. She wasn't in the mood for conversation, and he could respect that.

Rick went to relax with Michonne and a beer while the party continued on. They drank, they ate, they appreciated having family and food. Hershel eventually broke off from the group and came to sit across from Rick and Michonne on the deck. Above, the stars glittered serenely in the clear sky. Hershel studied them for a moment as he gathered his thoughts.

"Tell me about this man Beth is in love with," he said. "Daryl Dixon. He's a lot older than her."

"He's older, but he's a good man," Rick said. "He kept Beth safe when she was brought into the first camp we lived in. Rape was a common occurrence there, thanks to the rules laid down by our former leader. Daryl took her in, kept her safe from the other men in camp. They fell in love. I can't think of a more decent, loyal man than Daryl Dixon."

"I agree," Michonne added. "He's saved all of us more than once. He's a good provider. He's a good fighter."

"He'll always do right by my Bethie?" Hershel questioned.

Both Rick and Michonne nodded. Hershel seemed to accept it, which Rick was glad for. Hershel struck him as being a level-headed man. A decent man of honor and integrity. He must be, to have a daughter like Beth, Rick reasoned.

"I have concerns about what happened today," said Hershel.

"Bad luck," said Michonne, and finished her beer.

"No, I doubt luck had anything to do with it. We've been having some problems with a man named Micah Bishop. He's got a gang of ten men that he runs with. They're a bunch of cutthroats and thieves. They killed two people from our group, Otis and his wife, Patricia. They'd lived and worked on my farm for over twenty five years. They were good people, and Bishop killed them just to prove he's stronger than me. He's got a way of luring the walkers, manipulating them. He's sicced them on our group before. Today felt like one of those attacks."

"What does he look like?" asked Rick.

"Tall, black, strong-"

"He's a dark-skinned black man?" asked Michonne. "Has a white tattoo of an eagle on his right arm?"

"Yes," Hershel said. "You've had trouble with him too?"

She sat up, and Rick rubbed her back. "What is it?"

"I was out scouting once and saw a man like that in a fight with two men. He cut them both down with a machete. I didn't interfere. I didn't know who was in the right or the wrong. I just wanted to get back home without attracting attention. He wore sunglasses, even though it was cloudy out."

Hershel was nodding. "Yes. He's worn them every time I've seen him."

"If this man is in the area, and he's attacked us by siccing walkers on us," Rick said, "he could show up here at any time. We need to tell our people. We're probably already on his radar."

"That would be a good idea," said Hershel. "We don't want everyone getting drunk and then have him show up with his gang."

"Can he be reasoned with?" asked Rick.

Hershel shook his head. "No. He wanted me to give Maggie and Sasha over to his men to be gang raped. When I refused, he killed Otis and Patricia, and said the next time he demands something, and I refuse, he'd kill us all."

"Let's get inside, get our guns ready," said Rick. "I'll tell my people what you've told me."

Rick soon realized he wouldn't have to.

"Daddy!" Maggie said, all but breaking through the back door. She looked terrified. "Bishop is here."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary: **In which Bishop attacks. Shane makes a deal with the devil.

* * *

_**Micah Bishop politely knocked on the door.**_

"He'll blow you away as soon as you answer," Dale said. "I wouldn't put it past him. The man is sick."

"I don't want him to start shooting through the door," said Rick. "Get our women upstairs to the attic, Dale. Stay with them. Carl, go with them."

He nodded. Maggie, Andrea, Sasha, Carol, and Beth started upstairs with Dale and Carl behind them. Michonne refused to leave.

"Michonne, please."

"I'm not hiding from anyone," she said, and drew her sword. "Open the door."

He'd gotten to know Michonne well enough to know it was useless arguing with her when her mind was made up. This time when Bishop knocked it was twice as hard, and almost rattled the door in the frame.

Rick opened the door cautiously. Bishop didn't have a gun drawn, but he did have four men behind him. He smiled at Rick, revealing even white teeth.

"Evening. May I come in?"

"No."

"That's no way to greet company."

"You're not my company, Bishop."

He feigned surprise. "You've heard of me. Is that good ole Hershel Greene I spy behind you? Has he been telling you tall tales about me?"

"What do you want?"

"Women," he said bluntly. "You have a bunch of them. Seems only fair you share them with my people. It's lonely in this dark new world. Now, by my count, you've got six women. Give us three and you keep three. It's the neighborly thing to do and I'd consider it a friendly gesture. I'm a very good friend to have in times like these.I'm an even worse enemy."

"Are you serious?" Rick asked angrily. "You expect me to hand over three of my friends to be gang raped?"

The phony smile fell off Bishop's face like a safe from a window. "Yes."

"Not gonna happen."

"Then I'll kill the men and take all six women. Didn't I tell you, Hershel? Next time you didn't give me what I wanted I was going to kill you? Well, it's time to pay up."

Rick moved to shut the door in Bishop's face but he shoved it open with enough force to knock Rick back. As soon as he moved, the four men behind him surged forward, guns drawn. Someone fired a shot from behind Rick. He felt his hair move from the path of the bullet. It struck one of Bishop's men square in the forehead, felling him in the driveway.

"Get down!" Rick shouted, when return fire came.

_Damn fools are firing when their man is still in the door,_ Rick thought. It was chilling how aggressive these men were. They were everything Hershel said they'd be, and worse. He could tell that by their bold assault.

"Men are coming in from the back," Daryl shouted.

Suddenly the house was booming with the sound of gunfire.

"Get the chick with the sword!" Bishop shouted at two of the men who'd come in from the back yard. "I want her for my own."

Two men lunged for Michonne. She swung her blade around in one graceful arc and took their heads off.

"Shit," Bishop shouted, as he saw his men fall, and Rick tackled him along with Tyreese. The fight wasn't going to plan. These people weren't nearly as meek as he'd thought they'd be. He'd lost three men, that he knew of, possibly more, but none of his enemies had fallen. The gunfire from Hershel, Daryl, and Glenn was so intense the remaining three of the five men he'd sent around the house to come in back were forced to retreat. His own men, behind him, couldn't fire again because Rick and Tyrese held him squarely in the center of the doorway, using him as a shield against his own men.

He heard his men cry out behind him. Rick heard the sound of gunshots from upstairs. The women, Carl and Dale probably included, were shooting back from an upstairs window.

"Retreat!" Bishop shouted. "Fall back!"

The last man in the driveway ducked behind the armored truck they'd arrived in and laid down cover fire. Rick and Tyrese were forced to let Bishop go in order to dive for cover, especially after a bullet grazed Tyreese's leg. They slammed the door shut while the women upstairs continued to fire. The truck drove off. The men in the back yard took off over the fence to the house next door, probably to meet up with Bishop further down the street.

"How many of his are dead?" Rick asked.

"Three in the drive," said Tyreese, favoring his right leg.

"I've got two here," said Michonne.

"I nailed one in the back yard," Daryl reported.

"That's six of the ten that came here," said Hershel. He smiled at Rick. "We did it. We scared him off."

"I wouldn't be so quick to celebrate," said Rick, as Dale, Carl, and the women came back downstairs. "He may have a base with more men. He may try to come back after us."

"Then let's run after him and finish it," said Glenn.

Maggie shook her head. "I don't like that idea. You could get shot."

"The noise is going to attract walkers," Carol said, coming down the steps last, behind everyone else.

"What are we gonna do?" Beth asked. She went to stand beside Daryl.

"Suggestions?" asked Hershel.

"I say we pack up as quickly as possible and head out," said Sasha. "The school. We could take it and fortify it."

"What school?" asked Rick.

"There's an abandoned school about twenty miles from here. It's got a few walkers, probably more than we can see on the outside, but I think we can fortify it and make it a safe place to live," she explained.

Tyreese was nodding. "It's got a brick wall around it, only one story, plenty of rooms to convert into living spaces. I think it would be a good place to settle. There's plenty of room on the grounds to farm."

"A river runs behind it, too," said Hershel. "It's only about twenty yards from the back wall of the school."

He had to make a decision, fast. They'd won this fight, he believed, on pure luck, rather than skill. Bishop had been unprepared. He'd underestimated them and had most likely thought they wouldn't have the guts to take a human life. He'd operated on the assumption that Rick and his group could be easily bullied. Now that he knew he was wrong he would better prepare himself for a fight against them.

Their best option was to run, find a fortifiable place, and then prepare to make a stand in case he, or others like him, crossed their path again. There was something in Rick, perhaps his pride, which made him want to stay. His instinct was to stand and fight. That would get their men killed. That would get their women raped.

"We move out. Now. This house was never safe and now it's too small for all of us anyway. Pack everything we can. We'll give ourselves an hour. Dale, how much fuel you got in that RV?"

"She's full," he said.

"Good. You, Carl, and Andrea make sure the other vehicles are fueled. We had a good haul today with gasoline," said Rick. He issued orders for the others to begin packing food and clothes while Hershel bandaged Tyreese's leg.

"I can help," Tyreese said.

"Are you sure?" asked Rick? "That wound looks nasty."

"It hurts but it's not life threatening. Is it, Doc?"

"You'll be fine as long as we keep it clean. I've got a tube of antibiotic ointment that'll keep it from getting infected."

"Then let's get to work."

* * *

_**It was over an hour later **_when anything of value that they owned was packed into the RV and the other vehicles. More than ten walkers had come, drawn to the sound of gunfire, and they'd fought them off while packing up. More were on their way, Rick could see them further up the road.

Beth rode with her father, sister, and Glenn in the RV with Dale. Rick insisted Carl ride with them, rather than in the open Jeep where he would make an easier target if someone fired at them.

"Rick," Carol said, approaching him before she climbed into the back of the Jeep with Tyreese, who was going to ride with them. "I saw something during the attack that I think you should know about."

"Okay."

"I think, I can't be sure, but I think I saw a man in the upstairs window of the house across from us. He fired on one of Bishop's men."

Carol pointed to one of the men in the front yard. He had a bullet to his back. Rick looked to the house across the street. The windows were darkened. There was no sign of life. If there was someone who'd helped them in the fight, his instincts told him to find that man and offer him a place in their group, or at least a ride out of town before Bishop could return.

He was about to cross the street when he thought of Lori and Carl. He thought of how he'd abandoned them to try to save someone else while they were under threat. It had cost his wife her life and had nearly gotten his son killed. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. If the man wanted to be part of their group, he should have announced himself already. He wasn't going to make the mistake of putting a stranger's welfare over that of his son. He needed to get Carl out of there, and he needed to do it now. There was no time to waste on saving cats from trees.

"Let's move out!" Rick said, hopping into the driver's seat. He gave Michonne a quick kiss. "You okay?"

She nodded. "I just want away from here. There are a lot of bad memories."

Rick pulled out first, followed by Andrea and Daryl, who rode in the Ford that was packed with food and clothes. Sasha and Tyreese rode in the back of the Jeep with Carol, who gave the house she'd called home for the past year a final glance. Her daughter was buried in the back yard. It was a grave she would never get to visit again.

It was strange how leaving the house behind after a year of grieving somehow made Carol feel as though a weight were being lifted off her shoulders. She sat back, feeling a pair of eyes on her. She saw that Tyreese, the big, handsome man who'd been grazed by a bullet, shyly looked away before she could make eye contact.

A smile tugged at the corner of Carol's lips.

* * *

_**Shane Walsh watched as Rick turned**_ his attention in the direction of the house he'd been holed up in for two days. It was dumb luck he'd happened upon Rick and the new group he'd formed. It was dumb luck that he'd spotted Carl, alive and well, return from scavenging with his father and the black woman the Governor had taken captive. He couldn't remember her name. It was something like Melinda or Michelle. He didn't care about her. He didn't care about anybody in that house but Andrea and Carl.

Then Bishop had come. Shane knew the man all too well. He'd traded with him a few times in the months since he'd fled Woodbury, but he didn't trust either Bishop, or his men, not to cut his throat in their sleep for sport. He'd made it clear he was on his own. Bishop had said he was welcome to join anytime.

Now that Rick's group had kicked Bishop's ass and embarrassed him, they'd had to run. It was a smart move because Shane knew Bishop would return for vengeance. He had almost twenty men, but he never travelled with more than half of them at one time. It was lucky for him he'd left so many men behind or they all could have died on the raid on Rick's base. Shane felt some small measure of pride that his former friend had had the balls to fight back and to do so decisively.

Carl…Shane's throat constricted with emotion. He'd cried upon seeing the boy. Almost two years he'd lived believing he was dead. Now he knew that the child he'd loved as a son of his own was alive. Lori was forever gone, but Carl had made it.

There had been a moment when Shane, having seen Carol draw Rick's attention to his house, thought Rick would waste precious time to come and try to save the man who'd helped out in the firefight, using his last bullet to take out one of Bishop's men to give Rick's group a better chance at winning so Carl and Andrea would be safe, but he hadn't. For once he seemed to have learned his lesson. They needed to move. They needed to get Carl out of there. They needed to get their women out of there before Bishop returned with heavy artillery and sprayed them with bullets until his wounded pride healed. That's what Rick had done. He'd put his group above a stranger, and that redeemed Rick in his eyes somewhat. He'd never fully forgive Rick for Lori's death, but now he knew Rick had finally learned that family was more important than anything.

That didn't mean he trusted Rick to keep Andrea and Carl alive, though. Andrea was his woman, no matter how much she said otherwise. He'd marked her and she would be his till the day she died. Carl was the son he should have had. He was going to go after them. He was going to get Andrea back. He was going to take Carl and raise him as his own. He would keep them safe in ways Rick couldn't.

That left him only one choice.

Barely twenty minutes after Rick and his group peeled out Bishop returned in a heavily armed truck, with all of his men. They stormed the house, only to find it empty. When Bishop emerged, angry, cursing and spitting like a madman, he found Shane Walsh leaning against his truck, arms crossed. If Shane was going to go after his woman and his son then he needed help. He needed men and he needed guns. Something he didn't have on his own.

"Your offer still good?" Shane asked.

Bishop looked at the bodies of his men in the front yard. He saw the one man lying on the ground with a bullet in his back. That man now started to rise as he reanimated. Bishop stomped his head in, ending him once and for all.

"You the one who put that bullet in Lew's back?"

"I am," Shane admitted at once.

Bishop raised his gun.

"I had good reason."

"Yeah? What reason is that?"

"My woman and son were in that house," Shane said. "Rick had them."

"Rick…"

"That's his name, Rick Grimes," Shane said. "I know what you and your men would have done to Andrea. I couldn't risk her being passed around. I couldn't risk my fourteen-year-old son being gunned down. I'm sure you'd do the same if it was your family in danger."

Bishop nodded. He could respect a man fighting for his family, even if that man was in the way of Bishop getting what he wanted.

"I know the man you want. I know his weaknesses, I know his strengths. I also saw which direction they headed. I'm going after my woman and son. I think it would be a mutually beneficial arrangement if you and I worked together. I don't care what you do to the other women and men in that group. I only care about Andrea and Carl."

Shane and Bishop eyed one another for a long while, sizing one another up. Shane had nothing but his word. Bishop had a small army and guns. They could end him at any moment. Probably would, considering he'd killed one of their own. Still, Shane stared Bishop down. Any sign of weakness now would surely turn Bishop against him and get him a bullet between the eyes. Or worse-a bullet to the chest and he'd be allowed to turn.

"You'll take my brand," said Bishop.

"If that's what it takes," Shane agreed. "I'll take your brand and I'll swear you my loyalty until I can get my family back, and get you the revenge you want."

Bishop grinned and holstered his gun. "Somebody get this man a gun! He's comin' with us."


	4. Chapter 4

_**He was on the run again and he hated it.**_

Daryl Dixon sat in the seat beside Andrea and watched small portions of the world become briefly illuminated in the beams of the headlights before passing by. Mostly it was just flashes of the back of Michonne's Jeep with the rusty old license plate, a remnant from a world they would never see again, or the occasional leaves in the road as the first leaves began to fall. Up ahead, visible as two red distant red dots in the dark, was the RV that Beth rode in. He wished she was with him now, but he knew she needed time to be with her family.

"She's fine," Andrea said, reading his expression.

"I know," he answered, not bothering to deny that Beth was at the center of this thoughts, among other things.

"So what's got you down?"

"We're running again. Not exactly what I wanted right now," he said. "I'd hoped we'd be settled in for the winter."

Andrea nodded. "Uh-huh. I thought we'd be there this winter, too, but I'm wasn't looking forward to it. Winter last year in that house was hard."

"How so?"

"We kept having to go out for firewood to keep warm and we kept attracting walkers. It's a tough place to defend. If a big enough herd had come through we would have been helpless to keep them from tearing their way in to get at us."

"You think this school that Sasha mentioned will be any better?"

Andrea heaved a sigh and shrugged. "I hope so, Daryl. I'm as tired of running as you are."

* * *

_**Up ahead, in the RV, Beth**_ sat at the tiny table across from her father. She felt that kind of tired that could only follow an adrenaline rush. She gazed at her father, who stared out of the window at the impenetrable darkness. There were no streetlights anymore to give indication where they were traveling. There were no porch lights on to show that the world was populated with people making and raising families, paying the bills, and just living and loving until they grew old and died.

So much had changed in the year since she'd last seen her father. His hair was long and in a ponytail. He had a full beard and mustache. His eyes were the same, still capable of kindness, but they'd seen so much death, so much destruction, they'd hardened just a little. She reached out and touched his hand and he turned to her with a smile.

"Bethie," he said, smiling at her with deep fondness. "My baby girl."

"I missed you so much," she said quietly.

"I missed you too. I went back to look for you," he said. "I don't want you to ever think I gave up on your for even a moment."

"I know you didn't."

"What happened after we were separated?"

"Well, I was on the road for a few days. Then Andrea found me."

He nodded. "She's the pretty young blond woman?"

Beth smiled. "You old rascal."

Hershel laughed. "I'm old, I'm not dead."

She nodded and took his hand in both of hers. She could feel his pulse, steady and strong, in her palm. "God I missed you. I missed Maggie. The camp that we were in was a brutal one. The Governor, the man who ran the place…he allowed the men to rape women if they hadn't been claimed by a man."

Her father squeezed her hand. "Beth, what are you saying?"

"I wasn't raped. I swear I wasn't, Daddy. Daryl claimed me. He gave me his token so no other man could touch me."

"That's how that place was run? You were trapped in a place like that?"

She nodded. "It was a terrible place, but I was safe after Daryl took me in. He didn't hurt me," she said, not being entirely truthful. The first time he'd taken her had been rough. She'd been confused by how she could be so aroused and yet so disappointed at once. She knew he'd been rough because of the alcohol, but he'd never been rough with her again - unless she asked for it rough. She'd sensed goodness in Daryl and he'd never given her reason to believe otherwise.

"Rick says he's a good man."

"He's the best. Second only to you."

"You truly love him?"

Beth nodded. "With all my heart."

She pulled out the token she'd insisted on keeping. It had DD burned into the wood. Her father touched it with a frown to his face.

"It reminds me of how cruel this world can be. It also reminds me that there are good people left in it. I want to marry Daryl, Daddy. I want to take his name and have his children."

He smiled wanly. "You're too young yet to think like that, Bethie."

"It's not like this is a world where I'll have all the time to do all those things when I'm older because I may never be older. I hate that I have to rush it, but I will. We could all be dead tomorrow. I may not have kids yet, but I intend to get married. I want your blessing."

Daryl hadn't done a whole lot to earn Hershel's trust yet. He'd fought for their group, though, and Hershel had no doubt that in reality Daryl hadn't fought so much for the group as a whole as he had for Beth's safety. To Hershel, that made Daryl a man who deserved a chance.

Regardless of what he may come to think of Daryl Dixon, one thing was for sure: his baby girl loved him. If she wanted to get married and take the man's name then Hershel wasn't going to stand in her way. Her happiness meant more to him than traditions and ideals about age differences that no longer mattered.

"Of course you have my blessing."

Beth smiled happily and leaned across the table to kiss him and hug him. She sat back down, fiddled with the token, and then slipped it back into her shirt. It made her feel close to Daryl. It made her remember his hands on her body and she was anxious to find a place for them to call their own so she could be close to him again without fear of an attack.

* * *

_**The school in question was a **_long, one story building with an entrance directly in the center. It read _Berkshire Academy_ _for Boys_ on the sign out front. Every window was dark. It looked like a crouching beast in the first rays of dawn.

The building looked old. It was made of hand-laid stone and the gate was cast iron and chained shut. Several walkers meandered in the overgrown yard and on the cobblestone road that led to the roundabout drive.

"Rich kids went here," Daryl said.

Rick nodded. He saw, heartbreakingly, that a lot of the walkers were boys in uniforms, ranging in ages between fourteen and eighteen. A couple of the walkers looked like they had probably taught at the school.

"How many you count?"

"Six," Daryl said. "That we can see."

Rick organized teams. Dale had a set of bolt cutters that they used to open the gate. He, Daryl, Tyreese, Glenn, Michonne, and Maggie went in together. They each took a walker down and then broke into two separate groups. Rick, Daryl, and Maggie went left, while Tyreese, Glenn, and Michonne headed right. They would go around to the back and clear any walkers they found there.

"They're wearing fucking nametags," Daryl said.

Rick nodded in understanding. Knowing the name of the walker made it personal. All the kids had those stupid paper Hello, my name is stickers on their chests. Rick wondered if they'd put those on to be identified in some kind of rescue operation, to make sure the kids could be identified should their parents or friends of the family came looking for them. Whatever the reason, they all had names. They were suddenly people and not just dead things.

They were children.

The grounds would need cutting if they were going to set up residence here and try to farm. Rick thought about finding push mowers that would do the job quietly as he rounded the building. In the back he came up short. There were easily fifteen walkers in the back.

"You notice what I notice?" Rick asked. "They're all wearing uniforms. That means the wall is probably secure and outsiders haven't wandered in."

Daryl nodded. "We're gonna have to use the guns. That'll be noisy."

"We don't have a choice," Maggie said.

"Be ready to fall back if we get overrun," Rick said, and then motioned to Tyreese to move forward.

The job was dangerous but it went fast. After taking half the walkers out from a distance with guns, they took out the others with their knives.

"I'm gonna check the wall. Y'all look in the windows. See if you see walkers in the classrooms."

They nodded and Daryl noticed Maggie decided to come along with him to check the wall. "That guy Bethie's with," she said, nodding in Daryl's direction. "He's okay?"

Rick knew she was asking on behalf of her sister, Beth. "Yeah," Rick nodded. "He's very all right. He'd die to save Beth. He loves her."

"Well, I'll give him a chance, then," she said, and continued on with him to the wall.

* * *

_**They'd found the classrooms clear.**_ The large bathroom in the center of the building, which had six stalls, had also been found clear. It wasn't until they went to the double doors directly across from the main entrance, beside the bathroom, that they discovered the doors chained.

Inside, the room, whatever its use had been, was black as pitch, which meant there were no windows in it, but Rick pressed his face to the narrow glass viewport that a walker made itself known. It was a small one, no older than fourteen, his son's age. He'd been slight in life, not having reached a growth spurt yet, or, perhaps he'd gotten as tall as he ever would at about five feet two inches. Either way, it bothered Rick to look into the filmy eyes of someone whose life had ended so young. Its mouth snapped hungrily, and Rick had to stomp down on any paternal instincts that arose in his chest. There was nothing he could do to help this boy.

Rick's eyes wandered to the tag on the front of the boys crimson vest. The white shirt and gray tie under it had long ago been stained by the noisome fluids of decay, but the tags were still legible. Rick touched the glass and the boys hand reached out to claw at Rick's palm from the other side. He didn't fool himself into believing that the boy responded with any humanity left in his rotted, wasted mind.

"I'm sorry, Cristobal," Rick said quietly.

Others had joined Cristobal at the doors to pound furiously on the other side.

"How many you think is in there?" Tyreese asked.

"No way of knowing. I think we can let a few out at a time," he said. "Tyrese, you and Glenn keep the doors closed. Maggie, Sasha, be ready to help if too many press to get out and they can't get the doors shut. Michonne, Daryl and I will cut down the ones that come out."

They nodded their agreement and got ready to do the gruesome job. Rick made certain that when little Cristobal came through the door, he would be the one to take him down.

* * *

_**The room turned out to be**_ the entrance to the gymnasium. After the thirty walkers, all of them students with the exception of three, were killed and hauled from the building to be burned later that evening, Daryl caught up with Beth and chose a room for them to take over. The classrooms were full of desks that would have to be moved out, but for now they set up their bedrolls on the floor.

"Rick wants me to help out with kitchen inventory," Daryl said.

"Rick can wait a second. I've barely spoken ten words to you since I found my family. I miss you," she said, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "What do you think of them?"

"I like them. They seem nice enough."

"I think they like you too."

Daryl snorted. "They think I'm too old for you. They're right."

"No they're not," Beth said, without hesitation. "They'll get used to the age gap. We did."

She smiled up at him, looking so young and innocent, and God knew she was sweet to her core. He couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what she saw in him, or why she loved him, but she did. She did, and that was all Daryl cared about.

He brushed his lips against hers lightly. She tried to deepen the kiss but he pulled back. "I've really got to get to work. We'll have time for this later."

"Yes, we will. Make love to me tonight."

He nodded and kissed her softly before she begrudgingly let him go.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you, too," he answered.

They'd been saying it for a while but it never got old to either one of them.

Daryl found Rick, Tyreese, and Dale in the kitchen, which was just off the gymnasium. The dining hall, which was in back of the gymnasium, had been set up with tables that could hold four students per table. Rick estimated that a hundred students at a time could sit down to eat.

"Oh, my God," Dale said, as he emerged from the walk in pantry.

"What?" Rick asked in alarm.

Dale motioned at it and said, "You gotta see it to believe it."

Rick shoved past him. He was in no mood from drama and he hoped Dale wasn't prone to such behavior usually. Daryl followed, as did Tyrese. Rick soon understood the look of wide-eyed disbelief on Dale's face. The pantry looked as though it had been fully stocked with canned and dry goods before the Turn. Every shelf was laden with food. Green beans, corn, tuna, and a variety of other vegetables lined the shelves, in addition to gigantic containers of peanut butter, and other containers of jelly. There were huge bags of beans of varying type also stored, as well as fruits. There were huge bags of sugar, salt, pepper, spices, flour, cornmeal, as well as canisters of oats and grits. There had been potatoes that had rotted long ago. They'd clear that mess out later.

"This will last us all winter if we're careful," Tyreese pointed out.

"I know."

"It's dark and cool in here," Daryl said. "Smell those rotten potatoes. God, I can imagine what the freezer is going to be like. Rotten meat, eggs, spoilt milk and butter..."

Rick heaved a sigh. "Yeah, you're right, but we gotta look."

* * *

_**Andrea, with Glenn, Sasha, and Dale**_ as a guard, went to the river and brought back fish to be their meat for dinner. The school had several full tanks of propane that would operate the stoves and Maggie, it turned out, was a good cook, as were Beth and Carol. They went to work in the kitchen, and when dinner came round they sat down to a good meal actually seasoned with spices and salt and peppered to taste. It was the best meal Rick had eaten, literally, in years. They even had chocolate cake for dessert. They were all giddy with their find and Rick allowed them the night to enjoy it.

"We've got a lot of work to do tomorrow," he said. "So, for tonight, go to the rooms you've selected to get some rest. I need three people to volunteer for guard duty."

Tyreese, Dale, and Andrea all volunteered. Rick wasn't surprised Daryl didn't considering Beth all but dragged him away from the dining room. He had a pretty good idea what they were heading off to do, and he thought of Michonne, wishing he could do the same.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"I know you put my stuff in your room, but you should keep that room with Michonne. I want my own room."

"I don't know, son," Rick said. "We don't really know this place that well."

"I'll be fine. I'm old enough to have my own room. I'll board my window up in the morning. I'll be safe," he insisted.

Things were going so well between them that Rick didn't want to risk a fight. He gave in and nodded. "Okay, but you hear anything suspicious you come get me."

"Promise."

"I've had a lucky find," said Hershel, entering the dining room. "The shower room. They're well stocked with soap. I tried the water. It's functional."

"How is that?" asked Maggie.

"This school has a water tower and a pumping system. I'm guessing they drew water from the river rather than the city and filtered it themselves. The filtration system won't work, of course, but if we can find a way to manually operate the pump we can have running water. Unfortunately it'll be cold, but a cold shower is better than no shower."

"We'll work on that tomorrow," Rick said, and then headed out to begin his watch. The school had a lot of potential. He just hoped he and his group could make a stand in it when the fight with the living inevitably came their way.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Sweet lady, won't you be my sweet love for a lifetime…**_

The sound of an exceptionally beautiful voice poured from the speakers of the CD player Beth had found in the bottom desk drawer of the teacher's desk while she was searching the room for things she and Daryl may find useful. She'd found some size D batteries that were half charged and waited for Daryl to return to their room. She'd lit candles and convinced Dale to part with a half-full bottle of red wine in exchange for an extra slice of the chocolate cake she'd made for dessert, though she suspected he would have given her the wine anyway.

When Daryl had come home to the music, the wine, and the candles, he'd noted Beth had carted out the desks that had been in the room and cleared the walls of school related material. She'd hung curtains in the two windows of the room that he remembered had hung in a couple of the windows in their old apartment in Woodbury.

"You kept the curtains?"

"Packed away in our things," she'd said. "While you were working in the kitchen, Sasha, Carol, Glenn, Daddy and I went into town."

Daryl's eyes narrowed. "Who said you guys could leave the group?"

"Daddy took us. It was fine. He's a good shot. Look what we found."

She motioned at what Daryl had initially taken for a pile of blankets that needed to be spread out, but he soon realized it was an air mattress. It was one of the good kind made to hold a lot of weight and to last. It would be a proper bed for a good long while.

"Get undressed," she said. "I'll be back in a minute."

He did as told and felt his muscles protest after a long day of helping to clean out the putrid contents of what had once been the freezer and refrigeration section of the kitchen with Rick, Tyreese, and Dale, not to mention helping to clear out the dead walkers they'd killed when taking the school. The cold shower he'd taken had done nothing to soothe his muscles. He knew what Beth wanted, what she needed, and he wondered if he had it in him tonight to make love to her as he'd promised. The whole situation made him feel old, at least in comparison to her.

He'd just undressed when Beth emerged from the small bathroom that Daryl had discovered was in every single classroom. He reasoned they'd been installed to keep kids from using a need to go to the john as an excuse to run the halls and smoke in the bathroom. She wore red lacy panties and a matching bra.

Oh yeah. He was going to be able to keep his promise.

"Beth," he said, and it came out almost as a sigh.

"Just stand there for a moment," she'd said, and came up behind him. "I want to enjoy your body."

She ran her fingertips, light as feathers, over his shoulders and down his scarred back. She'd come to love everything about him, and she accepted the scars as part of what made him who he was, even if he didn' loved every inch of this man's body. She loved everything about him, heart and soul.

"You've got a sweet ass on you, Daryl Dixon," she'd said, and pinched his bottom.

He tried not to feel embarrassed. "So do you."

She came to stand in front of him and enjoyed stroking every inch of his skin. Each touch had the desired effect, and without actually touching him below his waist Daryl became hard.

"Lie down," she'd breathed, and so he had.

Now, as the music continued, some mixed CD of R&B love songs, Beth was also naked and astride Daryl, feeling him inside of her. He gently pinched and rolled her nipples as she moved against him, her head thrown back and her hair loose, giving her the ethereal appearance of a halo. She was his angel. He loved her so much it was sometimes a physical pain in his chest that left him choked up and speechless.

"Daryl," she sighed, as she found release.

He turned her onto her back and moved inside her. Beth's legs wrapped around him and held him close while she continued to run her hands over his arms, his back, and his shoulders. She dug her fingers into his hair and planted soft kisses along his jaw until he, too, found satisfaction in his release. She felt him spill himself inside her and her body ached with pleasure at the feel of it.

At some point Beth's fingers reached out to shut the CD player off. They'd save the battery power for another night. She blew out two of the three candles. She still wanted light enough to see his face.

"I told Daddy how much I love you," she said.

"How'd he respond?"

"He gave us his blessing."

Daryl smiled. "Good."

"Daryl, I've been waiting for you to bring the subject up but I'm afraid you never will, so I'm going to. Have you thought of us getting married?"

He turned to face her and she wrapped one of her long, slender legs around him. "Of course I have. I just…"

"What?"

"It just never seems to be a good time. We're always moving, always under some kind of threat."

She stroked a sweat dampened lock of hair from his forehead. "Our life will always be that way. That doesn't mean we can't live and do good things with the time we have. I want your name. I want to have your babies."

_Babies_, Daryl thought. _Shit_…

Children had always been something Daryl wanted but never thought he'd actually have. He'd drifted along with his brother, never settling down, never meeting a woman he'd loved enough to start a family with. Then the Turn came. Then he met Beth. Children with her was a dream. A good dream, but he'd considered it a dream nonetheless.

"How can we bring a baby into this?"

Beth didn't respond right away. She considered her words carefully before she said, "If we can make this place safe, and if we can defend it, then I want a family. Daryl, I want us to have children of our own. You'll be an amazing father. I'll be a pretty good mom."

"You'd make an amazing mother, Beth, don't ever doubt that."

She smiled. "It's not just children, though. It's the whole package. I want to be Beth Dixon. I want to feel like I'm yours and you're mine. Rick was a cop. He could do it. He could marry us. Everyone would know I'm your wife, and you're my husband."

Daryl's heart was thudding hard with more happiness than he'd ever felt up to that point in his life. There was a damn good woman who wanted his name and wanted him to be the father of her children. She wanted to share his life in every way possible. He didn't feel as though he deserved it in some regards. In others, he felt his life had been so hard that it was his due to know this kind of joy.

"Marry me, Beth," he said. "Take my name. Be my wife."

She broke into laughter and kissed him hard. "Yes. I'll be your wife."

"I need to find a ring," he said.

"We'll worry about that tomorrow."

"After I've put one on your finger, then we can announce it. I'll talk to Rick about marrying us."

"I don't want to wait months, either. I want to do it as soon as possible."

"Okay, okay, we'll get it done quick!" he laughed. "Already nagging me and we ain't even married yet."

"Get used to it, Mister," she said, and blew out the last candle.

* * *

_**Michonne stood by the main gate**_, pacing back and forth as she kept lookout for threats from both the dead and the living. She had an hour left on her watch before the young man, Glenn, came to take over for her. They were going in four hour shifts, one guard on the main gate and along the front of the school, and a guard on the back gate. There were two more guards walking the grounds at night and came by every half hour to visually confirm that the gate guards were in place and all right.

With summer gone and the fall setting in, days were still prone to be hot but the nights were getting cooler; not unpleasantly so. Michonne's light jacket flapped in a soft breeze and she listened to some fallen leaves scatter along the drive. She was bone tired. The day had been one of the rare hot ones with lots of humidity, and she'd spent it helping Maggie and Sasha pull weeds and push one of the four old fashioned push mowers that they'd secured in town. The blades were good and sharp but all the yard work, in the heat, left her muscles tired. They had cold running water, which was great, but she would have traded her katana for a hot shower. She rolled her shoulders and tried to stretch her neck.

"Tired?"

Michonne jumped. She hadn't heard Rick's approach, which showed how out of it she was.

"Didn't mean to startle you."

"I'm glad it was you and not Bishop," she said.

"We've had a big day. Just think, you're due for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep when your watch is over," Rick tempted. "We'll lay down and cuddle."

She rolled her shoulder and gave him a smile. "Sounds good."

"Shoulder hurting?"

"Just tired muscles. I'll be fine."

"Take off your jacket."

Michonne eyed him knowingly. "That's a bad idea, Rick. Any time either one of us takes something off in front of the other, when we're alone, it leads to other things."

He wiggled his brows and earned another smile from her. She sighed and turned around, shedding her jacket. His hands, big and calloused, yet gentle of touch, began to knead the muscles of her shoulders and behind her neck. He used just enough pressure to work out the tension without hurting her. She moaned from the sheer pleasure of feeling the pain ease from her shoulders.

"Moaning isn't going to incentivize me to behave," he said, and kissed her neck lightly.

"Then stop touching me just right."

"Come here."

"I'm on watch, Rick."

"Watch me drive you wild."

She turned to face him and his lips pressed to hers. He had yet to intensify the kiss when they both heard the movement in the trees behind them.

Michonne spun and grabbed her sword. Rick saw, in the light of the full moon that hung in the cloudless sky, there was a man on the other side of the fence watching them. Rick took off, thankful that the brick wall was only chest high. It was a wall that was easily three feet thick, made of stone and concrete, perfect for keeping out walkers but not men. He jumped, dragged himself over, and then landed on the other side with Michonne close behind him.

The man ahead ran hard, and he was fast. He would probably have escaped had he not tripped and fallen. He clenched his ankle and began screaming. In the quiet of night it sounded as loud as a train horn. The guy tried to get up and run but his foot dragged uselessly behind him. Rick tackled him to the ground and straddled him.

"Who are you?" Rick demanded.

"I'm nobody. I just came-"

His words were cut off by a hard punch to the face. "Don't lie to me. Who are you?"

"I swear, I'm nobody!"

Rick looked up at Michonne. "Go open the gate. Ring the bell twice for trouble."

She nodded and ran back to the gate, which was about fifteen yards from where Rick held the man down as he continued yelling. Rick clamped a hand over the guys mouth.

"Calling for help? You with Bishop?"

There was a look in the man's eye, suspiciously like recognition of Bishop's name, that Rick didn't like, before the man shook his head. "I'm on my own. I don't have a group or anything."

"Liar."

"Please, don't hurt me."

"I ain't making any promises."

* * *

_**The entire group was awake. By**_ Rick's watch the time was two-fifteen in the morning. Despite having been aroused in the middle of the night, not one face was sleepy. Rick smelled coffee brewing in the kitchen. Beth emerged with a pot and began filling the Styrofoam cups that people held.

Their guest was tied to a chair in the pantry, blindfolded and gagged. Rick now faced his group, who stood watching him with worried expressions.

"He claims he's a loner, that he doesn't have a group," said Rick.

"He ain't no loaner," Daryl spoke up at once.

"How do you know?" asked Sasha.

"Daryl's got uncanny powers of observation," Andrea answered.

"He's got on clean clothes. His hair is a little long and scraggly but it's clean. He's neatly shaved. He's not underweight which tells me he's eating regularly. He's got scars but they're all old, like he ain't had to scrap with either men or walkers in a long time. He's also got a brand burned into his arm and it's been there awhile. Looks like somebody marked him," Daryl explained.

Hershel looked at Daryl a long while. He'd seen all of those things but had not pieced it together like Daryl had. "That makes sense," he said, to the man who would someday marry his baby daughter.

Daryl nodded once in acknowledgement.

"So, who's he with?" asked Maggie.

"The brand on his arm was a B," said Tyreese. "I'm guessing he's with Bishop."

"They've found us already?" Carl asked worriedly.

Rick's mind went back three days, to when they'd left the house, after Bishop's attack. Carol said she'd seen a man fire on Bishop's men. Was it possible that same man had led them this direction, possibly tracking them?

"What are you thinking?" asked Michonne.

"Carol said a man fired on Bishop's group the night we left. I'm wondering if he didn't join up with them and follow us."

"Why would he do that?" asked Carol. "Why try to save us at the house just to kill us here?"

"I don't know. Maybe he was a loner. Maybe he saw something in our group that he wants but knows he can't get on his own."

"Maybe the man who helped save us is locked up in the pantry," Dale pointed out. "He could have followed us on his own, hoping to join our group, and now we've gone and locked him up and treated him like a criminal."

"He was trying to get the attention of his men," Michonne told Dale. "I'm sure of it. The racket he was making…he was trying to get help. He's not here alone."

"It doesn't matter how they found us so quickly. All that matters is that we don't have long before they attack," said Sasha.

"We should go out and look for their men," said Glenn. "We should see where they are, how many there are, what they're armed with. Maybe we can pick a few of them off."

"Before you get yourself picked off?" Maggie shot back.

Rick got the impression this was an argument they'd had several times already behind closed doors.

"We're not going to get anywhere until we have information, though I do like Glenn's suggestion about scouting. Daryl, you're the best hunter/tracker we've got. Pick a team and head out in the morning."

"Best to go at night," he said. "We could use the cover of darkness."

"Whatever you think is best. Take weapons and ammo," Rick ordered.

"Tyreese, Glenn, Michonne, you're with me," Daryl said.

Rick didn't want Michonne to go but he also knew she'd hand him his balls bloody and flat if he tried to pull any chivalry shit. She was a capable fighter, fast and strong, and she could take care of herself.

"I want to go too," Maggie said.

"No," Daryl came back. "These men are rapists. Hell, taking our women is their number one motivation."

"Michonne's going," she indignantly pointed out.

"Michonne's a warrior and I've fought with her before," Daryl said calmly. "If we get captured it'll take all she's got to get away without getting raped. Tyreese, Glenn and I will be killed on sight. If you're with us, you'll be gang raped. I'm choosing this team and you're not comin', plain and simple."

Maggie looked ready to revolt but both Hershel and Glenn shouted her down.

"You're staying here," Hershel said.

"I'll tie you to a chair myself if I have to," Glenn added.

Maggie's face was thunderous. She wanted to go to protect Glenn. While she knew a lot of what they said made sense, it still felt like chauvinistic bullshit.

"Hershel, you, Dale, Sasha, and Andrea take watch outside. Pair off and stay close to the school. If you see the enemy come back inside and warn us."

"What are you gonna do?" asked Carol.

Rick cast a wary glance toward the pantry. "I'm gonna have a word with our guest."


End file.
